Case Number 27380: Small Claims Court

The Moneychangers (1976)

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All Rise...

Judge Clark Douglas is the President of his piggy bank.

The Charge

"Darling, you may be my beau, but he's still my boss."

The Case

The miniseries format has been making a small comeback in recent years, but
we're still a long way from the heyday of the '70s and '80s. Once upon a time,
such series were a regular fixture on network television, genuinely important
events capable of securing actors who had fallen off the A-list but were still
too important for regular television. Those were the days of Shogun, I, Claudius, The Thorn
Birds, North and South, Roots, Jesus of Nazareth, Lonesome Dove and The Winds of War. Less well-remembered is the
1976 Arthur Hailey adaptation The Moneychangers, a socially-charged
examination of the banking industry starring Kirk Douglas and Christopher
Plummer. I suppose there's a reason it's been largely forgotten—it hasn't
aged particularly well, and it's melodramatic even by '70s miniseries standards.
Even so, the show has its soapy charms.

Our story begins with a dramatic announcement: bank president Ben Rosselli
(Leonardo Cimino, Dune) has been stricken
with a terminal illness, and the time has come for someone else to take over.
Rather than naming his successor, Rosselli tasks the bank's board with choosing
between two well-qualified candidates: the smooth-talking, charming Alex
Vandervoort (Kirk Douglas, Spartacus) and the conservative,
religious Roscoe Heyward (Christopher Plummer, The Sound of Music). Naturally, the
two men begin contemplating how far they're willing to go in order to win the
votes of the board, but Roscoe quickly proves far more vicious in his
willingness to smear Alex's character. Who will the bank choose?

That decision will arrive by the conclusion of the The Moneychangers'
fourth and final part, but in the meantime, we're treated to a host of
gloriously over-the-top subplots. Among them:

The wonderfully preposterous story of Miles Eastin (Timothy Bottoms, The Last Picture Show), a bank
employee who embezzles a few thousand dollars, gets sent to prison, endures the
most awkwardly-staged prison rape scene of all time and eventually comes back to
do dangerous work as an undercover informant working for the bank's chief
security officer (Percy Rodrigues, Peyton Place).

The tale of Alex Vandervoort's troubled ex-wife Celia (Marisa Pavan, The Rose Tattoo), who has been suffering
from catatonic schizophrenia for the past few years and is currently under the
care of the benevolent Dr. McCartney (Helen Hayes, A Farewell to Arms). Alex is eager to
get married to his current girlfriend Margot Bracken (Susan Flannery, The Towering Inferno), but Dr. McCartney
cautions that such a decision might prevent Celia from ever recovering.

The story of Roscoe Heyward's slow-but-steady descent into debauchery, as
his involvement with wealthy, powerful businessmen causes him to set aside his
strict morality and begin cheating on his wife with a high-class prostitute
(Joan Collins, Dynasty).

The convoluted plot which focuses Margot Bracken's attempt to get the
African American community involved in a scheme designed to force the bank to
change some of its policies. This plot takes up a great deal of time and leads
to a couple of surprising moments: a massive explosion, and a scene in which
Margot utters the words, "I am not The Man! I assure you I am not
jive-talking!"

This miniseries wanders down a host of rabbit trails over the course of its
lengthy running time, but it must be admitted the whole thing maintains a
certain level of pulpy entertainment. The events which transpire may be
melodramatic, but they aren't always predictable—the melancholy climax of
the series certainly caught me off guard. All of the central actors deliver game
performances, never condescending to the material (Douglas seems so invested in
every single one of his cheesy speeches about the evils of the banking
industry). The MVP of the cast is unquestionably Christopher Plummer, who won an
Emmy for his turn as the hypocritical villain. Plummer does slimy incredibly
well, but it's in the later portion of the series—when his whole world
starts crashing down—that the actor really shines. In the fourth
installment, Plummer has one large-scale meltdown which is almost alarmingly
convincing, as the character's assured facade crumbles and gives way to
childlike panic.

You'll certainly need to be prepared to endure some rough technical elements
when you watch The Moneychangers. The transfer is pretty crummy, as
scratches and flecks are all over the place and the image generally looks very
soft. It's not a whole lot better than it would have been if you had watched it
on TV at the time. Additionally, the Dolby 1.0 Mono track is a big
disappointment, as Henry Mancini's flavorful score (not quite as terrific as his
work on The Thornbirds, but still exceptional) sounds very wobbly and
distorted on many occasions. Dialogue can be rather muffled at times, too. No
supplements are included.

Don't expect a lost classic (or a very good transfer), but The
Moneychangers is nonetheless a pretty entertaining way to kill five and a
half hours. If you enjoy this sort of thing and can find it at a decent price,
go for it.